The goldmine in your prepress department – Magazine article

Your prepress department does not have to haemorrhage cash. In fact, if you are looking for profit growth, your prepress department is itching to become the new star of your company and in the process return you to the days of double digit nett profits.

You're a printer. I understand that. You run a slick operation with the latest gear and millions of dollars on the line. The trouble is the industry as a whole would be better off taking the money invested in printing plant and putting it in the bank.

I'll assume that like most printers, your pressroom runs more or less as a well-oiled machine. However the prepress department that stands between you and your customers, between you and significantly greater profits is conducting business with the equivalent of a 1960's printing press.

“Oh well,” you say, “they're only prepress people. It's not like they're printers. They don't make me money, they only cost me money.” Which would be fine except that it is not just the prepress people that work in your prepress department.

Engage the customers

This is very important. Like it or not, your customers are part of production. Whether they are 30-year battle hardened designers or a first year receptionist they are producing files that directly feed your equipment. And for all the struggles and stress on your side wrestling unprintable files to the ground, your customers are having just as much trouble trying to do business with you. So stop making it hard on them, and you, because it's costing you money.

As you lend a sympathetic ear to your staff, who complain that their 2004 vintage SpeedMaster just isn't shiny or fast enough. Think of your customers, the people with the money, who expect that you use the equivalent of a 1969 A.B. Dick when they try to do business with you. Remember when your customers think of you they do not think SpeedMaster they think Dick.

The next time you are bemoaning the lack of customer loyalty think of your best, your longest serving printer and imagine how loyal to you they would be if you gave them that 1969 A.B. Dick to work with.

But this isn't about touchy-feely loyalty and making your customer's lives easy. This is about cash and putting more of it in your pocket. This is about an ROI that will get your bank manager off your back and returning to the profit rates you expected in the 60's, 70's and 80's.

Upfront thinking

A fraction of the investment you would spend in the press room committed to the public face of your company will have a far reaching effect. It is a simple as this, because your public face is so neglected there are several people working for you that have to spend a large portion of their day doing things that don't make you money. By getting the public face of your company right, those people are either freed up for profitable activities or you can reduce your overhead. These are not marginal differences either, we are talking 15 to 40% + of the time of your staff that interact with customers; that is sales, customer service, prepress, administration and management - is being wasted.

With a predictable workflow, commitment to shorter deadlines becomes a reality, in turn increasing customer loyalty that is not based on lower price wins. The result is better margins. If you are thinking that this is just not possible because things always go wrong, then your are simply doing it the old way, and the wrong way.

Having the public face of your business actually contributing to the sales process, and your sales force with the time to sell, and only sell, means more new business written with better margins.

Differentiate yourself from the 95% of printers who helplessly shrug their shoulders after reading this article.

Become the printer that customers return to because you are so easy to deal with.

Be a printing company that writes more business with better margins, rather than one that sweats blood with every job, and never makes any profit.

Don't listen to the nay-sayers and the people uncomfortable with success, take control of your company and manage it back into proper profitability.

We have been helping printers do this for seven years now and it keeps getting easier. It is definitely possible to move more than 10% of your revenue directly from the costs column over to the profit column. Do you really want to keep doing business the same old way?

John Weichard is the Managing Director of D2P, innovator of artwork delivery systems, web portals and W2P solutions. Email John on jpw@d2p.com.au